EH3 – Rob Briggs

The Stockbridge Spectacular

Market¹ my words
Come on inside²
Spectacular Stockbridge has nothing to hide
We’ve Higgs boson³ and Garbage⁴ to spare
Send Nico⁵ to sleep⁶ if you despair
From the foot of the well⁷
To the top of St Stephen’s⁸
For the longest time⁹ bread¹⁰ and Circuses¹¹ find
Artisan Colonies¹² not left behind
The Dean Bank ducks¹³ all know
What Henry Raeburn¹⁴, Knight, provides

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Image: “The Drummond Children,” painting by Sir Henry Raeburn (c. 1808–9)

1. Stockbridge has popular local shops and a Sunday farmers’ market.
2. One of Scotland’s best-known brothels was located in Danube Street, Stockbridge.
3. Peter Higgs, physicist and discoverer of the Higgs Boson particle.
4. Shirley Manson, lead singer of the rock band Garbage.
5. Nico, a notably gloomy German singer, part of the Velvet Underground and muse to Andy Warhol.
6. Sir James Young Simpson, the first physician to demonstrate the anaesthetic properties of chloroform in humans.
7. St Bernard’s Well on the southside of the Water of Leith.
8. St Stephen’s Church, an unusual church designed by the architect William Playfair in 1827.
9. St Stephen’s Church’s clock pendulum is the longest in Europe.
10. Modern day Stockbridge is home to multiple artisan bakers.
11. Circus Lane, a mews lane, is popular and picturesque and was once used as a service street to keep coaches and horses.
12. parallel streets, collectively known as the ‘Stockbridge Colonies’, were built between 1861 and 1911 by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company to provide low-cost housing for the artisan class.
13. The annual Stockbridge Duck Race releases 1,000 rubber ducks into the Water of Leith to raise money for local charities.